The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant.
The poll, of nearly 26,000 respondents in 13 European countries, the US, China, India, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, South Africa and South Korea, found majorities in almost every territory surveyed expected China’s global influence to grow over the next decade.
I am in the Philippines where, despite being a nominal ally of the US, we have trade with China much more than the US but rather in a way completely displaces my country’s agricultural and industrial capacities, so as a result we are not only consuming Chinese goods as a cheap alternative to Western/Japanese/Korean goods but also locked into a rather vassal relationship (even after Duterte) where Xi feels like he can decide the fate of the Global South.
All the while the Mainland trying to claim all of a body of water mistakenly named for itself and literally taking it as a mark of ownership, which the sea-grab is what keeps Filipinos out of the Chinese-made stupor of a supposed “benevolent relationship”. However, as the US declines, so does the Chinese influence becomes bigger to the point there would likely be more of Duterte and their running dogs kowtowing to Xi and his successors.